This is a really interesting topic and one that hits home with me. Its a very romantic notion to live aboard, glorified by movies, temporary cruisers, social misfits, and those who don't live aboard. I love the idea of sitting out on the deck on a warm sunny day, diving into the warm water, swimming to shore, barbequeing, etc. But the more I stay on my boat for overnights, the more I realize that we live on land for a reason. Waking up in the morning to a cold and wet boat, every morning, taking a shower at the gym or in the cramped stall of my boat, does not appeal to me. Nor does raising a family on a boat, I can barely get along with myself alone in a room. It takes a certain rare breed to make it work and be able to handle it. Thats why most people don't.

There certainly would be less distraction on a boat, simplified as in everything is right in front of you, but easier? I don't think so. Life is what you make it, if it is hard on land, its gonna be hard on the water. I find that the more I try to simplify, the more difficult it becomes, the more decisions I have to make. I have a wandering soul, never quite satisfied, always searching for something a little better. You would think that the cruising lifestyle might be perfect for me, and it might, but its a lot different than the live aboard life. Like we have said before on here, they are two different creatures.

I hope you figure it out Hoffa, and if or when you do, give me the instructions please.

But the more I stay on my boat for overnights, the more I realize that we live on land for a reason. Waking up in the morning to a cold and wet boat, every morning, taking a shower at the gym or in the cramped stall of my boat, does not appeal to me. Nor does raising a family on a boat, I can barely get along with myself alone in a room. It takes a certain rare breed to make it work and be able to handle it. Thats why most people don't.

It's possible both to over-romanticize the "sailing life" (which often involves little sailing and a lot of mooring, anchoring or docking), and to overthink one's needs.

I'm not you, and I can't tell you whether you'll like something before you've tried it (maybe you should crew for a year on passage with various Jimmy Buffett types). But I can say with some authority that if there's something in your makeup that is unsatisfying or disappointing to you on land, that is unlikely to go away at sea.

"When you have little, there is little to do, and you are left with a lot of time on your hands that you can't afford to fill with entertainment and distractions.
You are left with a lot of thought, observation, and ultimately yourself, which might be the scariest of all."

The "Good life" might involve growing one's own organic vegetables, which sounds simple but may be hard work unless one has money for power fuel repairs, healthcare etc.
I recently had a week on a tropical island. Beachfront bure. Villagers all know each other, simple life. Heard one of the women workers describing life ( as told to her) in Auckland. "They are happy all the time as they go out clubbing all the time."
In contrast one in Auckland described it as "they don't understand. We go to work in the dark and come home in the dark." (And both work to buy a house, send some money home, and give to the church.)
Ok sitting under a coconut palm (which is unwise) may sound appealing if stuck in traffic with a lousy job etc. Actually I lasted 4 days and flew home early. No power, no reading in 12 hours of darkness, no company, nowhere to go, and nothing to do. On a boat would be better.
Sure on one level if you have food and your bowels are working life is good, but we also have potential exposure to great intellectual stimulation, which some think is ok, but may not be that important especially if the first two conditions are not met.
Distractions may make it more difficult to think or encounter oneself (or easier to evade). But when you have done that, what then?
I quite like the sense of my place in the world in a boat under the stars, knowing I am 500 miles from anywhere, reliant on the boat. Of course some human company and love might come to be appreciated as meaningful too, depending, I guess.
Guess we all walk our own roads, but maybe come to much the same conclusions in the end.

From the Joke thread, but I think it fits here (sort of):The American businessman was at the pier of a small South Pacific Island
village when a small proa with just one fisherman docked. Inside the small
proa was a dorrado and several large grouper. The American complimented the Islander on the quality of his fish and asked how long it took to catch them.
The Islander replied, "Only a little while."
The American then asked why didn't he stay out longer and catch more fish?
The Islander said he had enough to support his family's immediate needs.
The American then asked, "But what do you do with the rest of your time?"
The fisherman said, "I sleep late, fish a little, play with my
children, take a late afternoon nap with my wife, Helia, stroll into the
village each evening where I sip rum and play guitar with my
friends, I have a full and busy life."
The American scoffed, "I am a Harvard MBA and could help you. You should spend more time fishing and with the proceeds, buy a bigger boat with the proceeds from the bigger boat you could buy several boats, eventually you would have a fleet of fishing boats. Instead of selling your catch to a middleman you would sell directly to the processor, eventually opening your own cannery. You would control the product, processing and distribution.
You would need to leave this small fishing village and move to Australia, then LA and eventually NYC where you will run your expanding enterprise."
The South Seas fisherman asked, "But, how long will this all take?"
To which the American replied, "15-20 years."
"But what then?"
The American laughed and said that's the best part. "When the time is
right you would announce an IPO and sell your company stock to the public and
become very rich, you would make millions."
"Millions, realy? Then what?"
The American said, "Then you would retire. Move to a small fishing
village where you would sleep late, fish a little, play with your kids,
take a late afternoon nap with your wife, stroll to the village in the evenings here you could sip rum and play your guitar with your friends."

Hoffa - Crappy luck, sorry for your situation, but as someone else pointed out, the first year is the most expensive. I think that you may feel that this was preventable, which makes it hurt worse. Keep plugging away and if you do manage to 'figure it all out' you'll be able to write the perfect "how to live" manual and get rich at the same time! (Now there's a goal!)

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"... the only matter of consequence before me is what I will do with my alloted time. I can remain on shore, paralyzed with fear, or I can raise my sails and dip and soar in the breeze." - Richard Bode, First you have to row a little boat (pg. 94)

Rev and Chris, both have great points. When it comes down to it, its really whats in your own vision and taste that matters. I couldn't care less about the state of affairs of the state, if you know what I mean. I don't care about the latest fashion, or the latest gadgets, I have them now, but only because of the environment I live in. I am perfectly happy with next to nothing. This may contradict my earlier thread about being attached to land, but I don't think so. Restriction of space and resource has a lot to do with it. Ya gotta know what you want and follow that dream. There will always be setbacks that make you question what you are doing. The more changes you make, and the more drastic they are, the more you will question your reasoning and sanity. But its just a matter of fear of the unknown. My life is in a huge state of flux right now and I question what I am doing everyday. But, like a friend on here and I have discussed, I am happy at work and on my boat, everything else seems like a pain in the ass.

Another thought I have on this is that living a more minimalistic lifestyle is almost exclusively about one thing - changing very personal habits. That is what makes it hard, and that's a big reason people don't do it. I'm a terrible example of living in a simple way, my life is filled with a lot of chaos, but I have been trying to move in that direction. What I have discovered is that having a more simple life is mostly about making some very easy decisions and then doing the hard work of actually doing it. I mean we all know what living simply is, we all know how it is done, and we all have some idea of what we would have to change to do it. It's the doing that is the challenge. It's actually waking up tomorrow and doing things differently so that our habits change that would make a more simple life possible. It's little things like where you lay your keys, how you spend the money in your pocket, having a hook to hang your hat on, how far you have to walk to pick something up, etc. Making decisions about how to do these things and having some kind of a process for constantly refining it is, I think, the core of living a simple lifestyle. It's getting up every day and saying to yourself "What can I do today to make my life less complicated ?".

Some people will spend literally thousands of dollars to build and maintain a system if it will save them from having to take 60 seconds to use a 0.10$us rag to clean a 2$us bowl every day. It's not that washing a bowl is hard, it's just that they are used to tossing the bowl in a machine that does the work, and it takes effort to change that one little habit. People will go to the ends of the earth to avoiding changing habits like that, I know because I've been one of them, but I am trying to change. [edit - Not that there is anything wrong with going to the ends of the earth ]

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